I always knew for as long as I can remember that I was an outdoorsy person. Growing up, I was always outside with friends enjoying the warmth of the sun or the cool night, (If you can even say “cool nights” in Houston). As I started to get older I joined Cub Scouts, and then I moved into Boy Scouts. It was in Boy Scouts that my love for the outdoors grew. Every month on one weekend my troop and I would go to a different state park or national park. During the trips, in between the hikes and rank advancements, we would often do our part to help maintain the parks so that others could enjoy the same parks in the same condition as we did. Being able to help the park rangers as a troop was always a blast and never got boring to me.
When college came around, my camping life slowed a little more than I hoped it would have due to classwork and my job outside of school. Even though I was camping less, it was not because I didn’t have the passion or love for it, because that was and always will be there, rather it was because of new responsibilities that took more time and required more of myself to complete. Like so much other stuff in my new college life, it seemed too hard to plan with what little time I felt I had.
It was later in my second semester my sophomore year, when my girlfriend Jenn told me about an opportunity that Raider Service Brakes (RSB) was putting on for Texas Tech students. It was an opportunity to go to Caprock Canyons State Park and help the park rangers with clearing graffiti on some of the canyon walls. Being that school was going on and finals were coming up pretty fast, I didn’t think I was going to be able to go. Until, Jenn told me that it was in the summer, not during the semester. After hearing this information, I made sure my name would be appearing on the list of students willing and able to go.
As my summer continued to chug along, one of my summer classes looked like it might prevent me from being able to go on the trip. My class was in Houston, which would prevent me to be able to go to the meeting/training session to get the information on the trip itself. My final for my summer course would also be the day before everyone would leave on the trip, and the drive would be about eight hours for me to get to Caprock. With all of this bouncing around in my head, I quickly notified Jacy, the head RSB my situation. Thankfully we were able to figure out a plan that would still allow me to go on the trip. One of the only catches to the plan was that I would be arriving later on the first day and most likely missing out entirely on the service we were going to do the first day.
The day comes for me to leave home and meet up with the group. The drive is long and I am tired, but my endless amount of Car Talk is able to keep me awake and alive as the road never seems to end. When I am close to the church that we are staying at, Jenn is out in front excited to see me (it had been weeks since we had last seen each other). I grab all my things and head inside to meet the group. When I walk in Jenn takes me over to Jacy. She greets me with a warm smile and a “welcome to the group”. I unpack all that I will need for the night while Jenn tells me all that they did that day for Caprock. After dinner we all sat at the tables and I introduced myself to everyone and we then went and described the day and the experiences that came with it. Everyone talked about the graffiti, and how they were amazed by how much there was. Most people that go camping, that I have met, seem to have the understanding of preserving nature as one of the most important things. Then there are the others that decide that their initials and their significant other’s initials with a heart around them are more beautiful and important than the natural look of a carved canyon. So let me set the record straight…THE NAURAL BEAUTY WILL ALWAYS BE MORE GORGEOUS!
The second day came and we got to take ATVS out to one of the canyon walls with a ranger so that we would have the energy to still be able to use our brushes and chisels to erase the unnecessary graffiti on the wall. Removing all of it was hard work and took a little more climbing than I expected. After the wall was clear, it looked pretty close to its former natural beauty, and it would now look wonderful for all the future generations that would camp or hike at Caprock. All the work that we did in Caprock Canyons State park will spark a movement to help not only Texas State Parks spread the word about what kind of damage graffiti does, but also help spread the word for National parks. It’s very rewarding for me to know that I was able to help assist the parks in starting this movement and to help make a difference in the parks so that people will start to be more aware of their actions while enjoying the outdoors, and help to preserve our parks for future generation. I can’t wait to get back out there and volunteer more in our parks.
- Jason Perkins